Editorial: Rebound in store for Pioneer Valley home sales?

A recent increase in single-family home sales in the Pioneer Valley may indicate that 2013 could bring a welcome rebound in the real estate market – and, with it, a boost of confidence for local homeowners who have watched their biggest investment decline in value since the housing bubble burst in 2008.

Sales of single-family homes rose 10.3 percent across the valley with 395 homes sold here last month – up from 358 a year ago in November 2011, according to the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley. Median prices of those homes fell by 3.4 percent from $184,250 last November to $178,000, according to the Realtor’s data .

Brian P. Sears, Realtor at Sears Real Estate in Springfield, who will become president of the Realtor Association next year, said he believes the steady increase in sales over the last few months will begin to appreciate in 2013. “As long as interest rates remain somewhat stable, sales will be good. I think you have pent-up demand,” Sears said. “It is a lot better then where we were at the bottom.”

There’s still a ways to go to get out of the trough the region has been in. The median price – $200,000 back in 2005 – is down 11 percent across the valley.

Let’s hope the upward trend continues into 2012.

It’s been a long road to recovery and the market could be affected negatively if Washington can’t reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, according to Kathleen M. Witalisz, owner of Witalisz Real Estate in Westfield. She’s particularly worried that Congress could do away with the mortgage tax exemption as a fiscal-cliff compromise.

While we all await the outcome, it’s the season to remember that there’s no place like home.